


Midnight Moments

by madgrace



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 09:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8618518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madgrace/pseuds/madgrace
Summary: After the battle at the Castle of Lions, Keith takes it upon himself to see Pidge and apologize for their fight during the banquet. But things don't turn out exactly how he'd expected. Set between episodes 5 and 6.





	

Surprisingly enough Keith finds himself making his way to Pidge’s quarters to believe it or not apologize for his own behavior. However unsurprisingly he’s finding **great difficulty** in doing so. He is after all incredibly stubborn when he wants to be. But even he knows when he is as fault…at least in some respects.

Like it or not it is undeniable that Keith tends to get a little _heated_ from time to time especially when matters of loyalty are involved. It may be hypocritical perhaps seeing as he initially questioned his own loyalty to the hastily made team that is the paladins of voltron. But even so since he’s made up his own mind he has been nothing but loyal to team voltron, nothing but loyal to Shiro which was more than what Pidge can say.

But that’s not the point. It doesn’t matter who was wrong or who was right ( but he was right, don’t be mistaken. **He was right** ) He’d still been out of line in shouting at her like he did yesterday. 

 _Yesterday?_ Had it only been yesterday since the banquet on Arus? Since their argument? Since the attack on the castle. It feels like it’s been days, weeks even since everything went down. Keep in mind none of them really have any concept of time now that they’re in space. For all they know it could’ve been a whole week since the attack on the castle. But the single time the sun ( or whatever star was granting them daylight earlier ) set & rose again indicates that it indeed only a day has passed. Even so  using Earth’s system to calculate time might not be the most accurate. They’re not on Earth anymore, nowhere close to it.

He doesn’t really miss Earth. That’s another thing that makes him _different_ than the other members of the team. They all had homes back on Earth, they all had families, they had something that made Earth more than just dwelling place for them. Keith can’t really say the same for himself. Nothing really tied him down like that, except maybe Shiro. 

But he has Shiro here. Not necessarily the Shiro who he’d lost back at the Garrison but nevertheless he still has him by his side. That makes this ship more of a home to him than Earth had been for the past year give or take. 

But he’s not like the others, he never has been. He’s got his own special circumstances for feeling the way he does, circumstances that none of them will fully understand. He’s not like Pidge or Lance. He doesn’t have a family to worry about somewhere in the universe. He doesn’t have people out there that care about his wellbeing. If he died tomorrow in some space battle it wouldn’t matter.

For the most part this fact doesn’t bother him, not anymore at least. For a good amount of time in younger years he was not only bothered by his inevitable state of loneliness, he was completely distraught. But he’s moved past that now. He’s through fighting his own destined fate and simply accepted that he’s just another orphan in a sea of orphaned kids on Earth. Sad the truth may be he’d rather live in the truth than chase some stupid daydream.

But that doesn’t mean that this is the case for the rest of them. For people like Pidge it might be preferable to be happy or hopeful than realistic. Because what’s realistic is that Pidge’s family are long gone and nothing she does will change that. They’ve seen enough of the Galra in the last couple days to know what they’re capable of. It’s likely that they were killed months ago.

He’s not going to tell her that though. Even if he did he doubts she’ll listen to him. He doesn’t know very much about Pidge but he knows she’s the only one possibly more stubborn than him. Maybe that’s why they seemed to butt heads so easily. They were so similar yet at the same time they were nothing alike. 

But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t at least try to work things out. They are part of a team after all and Pidge really pulled through for them during the attack. In the end she’d made the right decision and that’s what really matters right? She’d done more than make up for almost abandoning the team. Now it’s his turn to make up for blowing up at her. 

He’s grateful that like himself, Pidge has an irregular sleeping pattern and is likely to be awake at this late hour. Otherwise he doesn’t know how he’d be able to find time to talk to her alone. In daytime hours if she’s not busy working on her tech she’s either being pestered by either Hunk or Lance ( mostly Lance ) or off with Shiro somewhere. If he’d needed to say anything else to Pidge this wouldn’t really be an issue for him. However Keith deems this matter better for just the two of them. The whole fight had only been between the two of them anyway. 

He does his best to keep quiet as he makes his way to her quarters, his footsteps light and his pace fairly slow ( though perhaps this is also due to his hesitancy to actually see her. ) Upon reaching her door he swallows a small lump in his throat before raising a hand to lightly knock upon the smooth metal door.

“Pidge? Are you up?”

No answer. 

He waits a moment, coming to the conclusion that perhaps she was indeed asleep. He nearly steps away from the door when he hears movement behind the door.  Sure enough in moment the door slides open and a mane of dirty blonde hair came into view. 

While Keith isn’t the tallest person ( In fact he’s the shortest in the team after Pidge ), he still towers over the small girl in front of him. Somehow she looked even smaller now without her armor, clad in loose green t-shirt and white cotton shorts. She also appeared much more feminine and Keith wonders to himself how he hadn’t come to realization of her identity sooner. 

He had realized it early enough; the truth hitting him like a pile of bricks at some point during their first few nights in the castle. But now that’s he looking at her now it’s a mystery how she’s managed to fool everyone else. She’s so _unmistakably feminine_ with her large brown eyes and her petite frame. Perhaps she didn’t have the features of a incredibly feminine girl that someone like Allura might possess. But even with her baggy windbreaker and her short ruffled hair she still had this girlish charm about her. He couldn’t really explain it but somehow he always knew that Pidge wasn't exactly what she said she was.

Not that he’d mention this to her or any of the other members of the team. While he may not understand why Pidge has chosen to hide her identity in this fashion, Keith knows that she must have some reason for doing so. It’s not exactly his business regardless so he’ll choose to leave well enough alone. If she chooses to tell the other’s what’s going on that’s her decision. As a fellow team member and ( possible ) friend he’ll give her the respect as to not divulge into her secrets.

Pidge has a sort of grim expression on her face, her brows furrowing slightly as she sends a small frown in his direction. He meets her gaze for a moment and Keith realized she’s without her glasses. He’s rarely seen her without them if at all. He also notices that her eyes look rather red. 

_Had Pidge been crying?_

He can’t imagine Pidge crying. It’s just so improbable in his mind. She always seemed so tough and unbothered by anything. But he supposes everyone cries at some point. Even the toughest people have shed tears for something or someone, even people like Pidge, even people like him.

“What do you want?” Pidge’s voice comes out as a low croaked kind of grumble, making it incredibly clear that she’s upset. 

Keith doesn’t know how to handle that. He doesn’t know if he can handle that, at least in a way that would actually be helpful. He’s never been good with dealing with emotional people let alone actually comforting them. Whether this be from inexperience or just being socially awkward in general he neither knows nor cares. Even if he could comfort someone properly he’d prefer not to have to. 

“Uh  — never mind. It’s late. I can get you tomorrow or something.” Keith’s already backtracking. He doesn’t know why she’s upset but considering their earlier fight, he’s probably not the first person she’d want to talk to right now.

“Keith…” Pidge’s voice is stronger now, though no less impatient as it had a moment before, “You obviously came here for something important. You’re not the type to make house calls so just spit it out so I can go back to my- go back to working on my tech.” 

Keith sighs, raising a hand to scratch the back of his neck uncomfortably. She has him cornered now. He might as well go out and say it. He came all this way and contrary to what he’d said earlier he’d prefer not have to come back tomorrow.

He opens his mouth to speak and after a moment or so of simply staring at her and trying to compose what to say it occurs to him that he doesn’t really know how to go about the whole thing. He really doesn’t apologize often so now that he’s trying to make an effort to he’s not exactly sure where to begin. Does he just say sorry or does he talk about what happened? He doesn’t want to come off insincere. No, that’ll probably only make her more mad. Though anything is probably better than gaping at her like an idiot like he’s doing at this moment.

Luckily for him Pidge cuts off his train of thought, “Uh…Keith? You okay? You look a little…out of it.” 

Keith blinks, shaking his head back into focus, “Yeah, sorry. Kinda got lost in my own head for a second.” He lifts his hands from his sides, crossing his arms over his chest as he shifts his gaze away from her and onto the ground. He pauses a moment before continuing, taking a deep breath before speaking once more. “I…I just wanted to say — **I’m sorry** for everything that went down yesterday. I was out of line, yelling at you like I did. I just, I just wanted to make sure the team stuck together.”

“Keith…” It’s not the uttering of his name that snaps his attention back to Pidge, but the sort of sweet and gentle way she says it. He’s never heard her be this soft spoken before nor has he heard his own name spoken in such a way. He finds it peculiar yet charming all the same. 

He whips his head upward as she speaks, brows furrowing as he meets her eyes. For a moment he gets lost there, lost in the startling pools of amber that were Pidge’s eyes. They are, now that he’s thinking about it a bit larger than he originally thought. Though perhaps that was related to the fact that she’s without her glasses at the moment. They’re also unmistakably feminine. Luckily for Pidge her glasses seemed to hide that aspect of them for the most part but now that he’s close to her Keith can see the long lashes lining her wide eyes and the sort of delicacy of her features. Yep, there’s no doubt in his mind that Pidge in fact a girl. 

Her eyes were actually kinda pretty…no wait, _not like that_.

Keith almost doesn’t hear the rest of Pidge’s response due to his ever wandering train of thought, “ — You were right. Leaving Voltron to find my family was selfish. It’s…” She pauses and for a split second Keith swears that her eyes looked rather watery. “It’s just been hard…being without them.”

“I know.” Keith’s not really sure how else to respond at this point. Of all the possible outcomes he’d mulled over on his way over here, a grieving but agreeing Pidge was not one of them. Would it be rude to leave? No, he can’t do that. Not yet anyway. 

Luckily for him judging by the sort of half smile she gives him, Pidge appreciated Keith’s short but no less sincere response. On an impulse he reaches out and places a hand on her shoulder, returning her smile with a small one of his own. “We’ll find them, Pidge. I promise.”

To his surprise she doesn’t repel his act of slight affection, on the contrary she looks up at him, gratitude & something else Keith’s not entirely sure about twinkling in her tear filled eyes. In that moment there is this _moment_ between them, neither of them will be able to fully understand what went down between them for a long time. But that moment is a beginning and an end; the end of their feud, an end to their mistrust of each other and the beginning of…he’s not exactly sure yet. 

Suddenly in an abrupt action that completely knocks the wind out of him, Pidge hugs him with a force that he’d previously deemed her incapable of. His eyes widen, gasping softly as her arms wrap themselves tightly round his middle. It takes him a moment to properly respond, arms hanging limply at his sides before wrapping them around her rather hesitantly. Her embrace is warm, warmer than he’d thought it be. But Keith’s not much of a hugger so he doesn’t really have anything to compare it to. 

He gives her a small squeeze, lowering his head to rest it atop hers gently. It felt nice, standing here with her like this. It felt more comfortable than he’d expect considering he’s not a touchy feely person. If he’s honest with himself he’d be content to stay here like this, for how long he neither knows nor cares. But for the first time in what feels like years he feels at peace. It’s unbelievable what a simple act can do at the right time from the right person. So he’ll just stay there for as long as she’s willing, holding her in his arms as they both appreciate the complete silence shared between them. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my little Kidge drabble! For more Kidge content and screaming about rare pairs catch me at [jockfrost](http://jockfrost.tumblr.com)


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